Roman Mythology

ROMAN MYTHOLOGY

Roman Mythology, various beliefs, rituals, and other observances concerning the supernatural held or practiced by the ancient Romans from the legendary period until Christianity finally completely supplanted the native religions of the Roman Empire at the start of the Middle Ages.

The original religion of the early Romans was so modified by the addition of numerous and conflicting beliefs in later times, and by the assimilation of a vast amount of Greek mythology, that it cannot be reconstructed precisely.

Because extensive changes in the religion had already taken place before the literary tradition began, its origins were in most cases unknown to the early Roman writers on religion, such as the 1st-century BC scholar Marcus Terentius Varro.

Other classical writers, such as the poet Ovid in his Fasti (Calendar), were strongly influenced by Alexandrian models, and in their works they frequently employed Greek beliefs to fill gaps in the Roman tradition.

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Roman gods were not originally anthropomorphic like Greek Gods, with whom they became identified:

SATURNUS (CRONUS)

JUPITER (ZEUS)

JUNO (HERA)

VESTA (HESTIA)

MINERVA (ATHENA)

CERES (DEMETER)

DIANA (ARTEMIS)

VENUS (APHRODITE)

MARS (ARES)

MERCURIUS (HERMES)

NEPTUNUS (POSEIDON)

VULCANUS (HEPHAESTUS)

LIBER (DIONYSUS)

DIS PATER (HADES or PLUTO)

Non-Roman gods whose names changed from the Greek included:

HERCULES (HERACLES)

CASTOR and POLLUX (CASTOR and POLYDEUCES)

AESCULAPIUS (ASCLEPIUS)

APOLLO kept the same name at Rome.

Janus. The god JANUS [jay'nus] was the god of beginnings, associated originally with water and bridges. The doors of his temple were closed only in time of peace. He was also the god of doors, entrances, and archways, and was identified with Portunus, god of harbors. He was portrayed with two faces, one looking forward and one looking backward.

Mars. Originally an agricultural god, MARS [marz] gave his name to March, the first month of the year in the pre-Julian calendar. His consort was Nerio, a Sabine fertility goddess. He became the Roman god of war, sometimes with the title of Gradivus ("the marcher"), and sometimes associated with the Sabine war god QUIRINUS [kweye-reye'nus or kweye-ree'nus]. Among other Roman deities of war was Bellona. Animals associated with Mars were the wolf and the woodpecker (picus in Latin). The woodpecker was said to have been a Latin king, Picus, who was turned into a bird by Circe, while his wife, Canens ("singer"), wasted away into a voice.

Jupiter. The Italian sky-god was JUPITER [joo'pi-ter], whose principal temple was dedicated on the Capitoline Hill at Rome in 509 B.C. There he was worshiped as Jupiter Optimus Maximus, "Best and Greatest," and shared his temple with Minerva and Juno. The triumphus (triumph), the procession celebrating a Roman general's victories, had this temple as its terminus. Like Zeus, Jupiter had the thunderbolt as his special weapon, and the place where lightning had struck had to be purified by an expiatory ritual. Jupiter caused a shield (ancile) to fall from heaven into Rome as a talisman of Roman power. Along with eleven other ancilia (made so that there would be less chance of the genuine ancile being stolen), it was kept in the Regia, the official quarters of the Pontifex Maximus, the head of Roman state religion. As Jupiter Latiaris, Jupiter was chief god of the Latin tribes, and as the god associated with Fides (Good Faith), he was identified with the Sabine god Dius Fidius, who also was identified with a Latin diety, Semo Sancus. As Jupiter Indiges, Jupiter was worshiped beside the river Numicus, about twenty miles to the south of Rome. The Di Indigetes (the plural of Indiges) were a group of gods whose functions are not known, and Aeneas was deified as Indiges after his death beside the Numicus.

Juno. The goddess JUNO [jou'noh] originally presided over all aspects of the life of women, particularly marriage (as Juno Pronoba) and childbirth (as Juno Lucina, whose annual festival was the Matronalia). As Juno Moneta ("adviser") she was worshiped on the Arx (part of the Capitoline Hill) with a temple next to the Roman Mint (which was called ad Monetam, hence the origin of the word mint). As Juno Regina, "Queen," she was escorted to Rome from the Etruscan city of Veii on its defeat by the Romans in 396 B.C. Like Hera with Zeus, Juno became the wife and sister of Jupiter in Roman literature, sometimes opposing the will of Jupiter, as in her efforts to prevent the fated success of Aeneas.

Minerva. Also a pre-Roman goddess, MINERVA [mi-ner'va] was brought to Rome by the Etruscans and identified with Athena in her attributes and functions, especially as goddess of activities requiring intelligence. She was patroness of craftspeople and of schoolchildren; her festival was the Quinquatrus.

Vesta. The Roman fire-gods were Vesta, Cacus, and Vulcan. VESTA [ves'ta], the counterpart to the Greek Hestia, was the goddess of the hearth, the center of family life and of the state's life as a community. She was symbolized by the ever-burning fire in her temple in the Forum of Rome. Her cult was tended by six Vestal Virgins, high officials in the hierarchy of state religion. Other household divinities were the PENATES [pe-na'teez], defined as "the gods who are worshiped in the home." The Penates were identified with the household gods of Troy entrusted by Hector's ghost to Aeneas and brought by him to Italy. The Trojan Palladium was kept in the temple of Vesta; it was said to have been given by Diomedes to the embassy of Aeneas that had sought his help.

Cacus. In Book 8 of the Aeneid, the Italian fire-god CACUS [ka'kus] is made out to be a fire-breathing monster who stole the Cattle of Geryon from Hercules and was killed by him. The myth identifies his home as a cave on the Aventine Hill; an ancient pathway leading up to the southwest part of the Palatine Hill was called the Scalae Caci ("Ladder of Cacus").

Vulcan. The chief Italian fire-god was VULCAN [vul'can] (Volcanus), originally the god of destructive fire but (through his identification with Hephaestus) also of creative fire. He was more important in the pantheon than Hephaestus was among the Olympians. His forge was beneath Mt. Etna, and his associates (the Cyclopes) and myths are all taken over from the Greek legends of Hephaestus.

Saturn. The leading Italian agricultural gods were Saturn, Mars, and Ceres. SATURN [sat'urn] was identified with Cronus, and his consort, Ops, was identified with Rhea. In cult his partner was Lus, and the partner of Ops was Consus (at whose festival, the Consualia, the rape of the Sabine women took place), who presided over grain when it was stored. Saturn was said to have ruled over a Golden Age in the early history of humankind. His festival, the Saturnalia, was a midwinter celebration, perhaps originally connected with the sowing of grain.

Ceres. The Italian goddess of grain, CERES [seer'eez], was identified with Demeter. A temple was dedicated to her at Rome in 493 B.C. She was associated with Liber (identified with Dionysus) and Libera (identified with Kore-Persephone), so that the Roman triad of Ceres-Liber-Libera repeated the Eleusinian triad of Demeter-Iacchus/Bacchus-Kore. When the grain was sown in the earth, it was protected by another Italian earth-goddess, Tellus Mater (Earth Mother).

Flora and Pomona. Minor fertility deities were FLORA [flo'ra] and POMONA [po-moh'na]. Flora was the goddess of the flowering plants (including grain and the vine), and was said to be the consort of Zephyrus, the West Wind, who gave her a garden filled with flowers and tended by the Horae (the Seasons) and Graces (Greek Charites).

Pomona was the goddess of fruit that can be picked from trees, and she kept a garden from which she excluded would-be suitors. The Etruscan god Vertumnus (perhaps "Changer" or "Turner") turned himself into an old woman who advised Pomona to marry Vertumnus. When he resumed his usual form as a young male god, she accepted him.

Pales. The deities (originally two) who protected the farmers' livestock were called PALES [pay'leez], whose name later was used for one deity, male or female. Their festival, the Parilia (or Palilia) was considered to be the anniversary of the founding of Rome.

Silvanus and Faunus. Two divinities of the woods were SILVANUS [sil-vay'nus or sil-va'nus], "Forester," and FAUNUS [faw'nus], "Favorer." In Vergil, Faunus is son of Picus and grandson of Saturn and father (by Marica) of Latinus. Both he and Silvanus were identified with Pan and were thought to be responsible for strange and sudden sounds in the woods. Faunus had oracular powers (both Latinus and the second Roman king, Numa, consulted him), and his consort, Fauna, was identified with the Bona Dea ("Good Goddess"), whose worship was only open to women.

Faunus (as the equivalent of the Arcadian god Pan) was worshiped by King Evander, who came from Arcadia and founded Pallanteum, the first settlement on the Palatine Hill. His sanctuary was a cave on the Palatine, called the Lupercal, where the infant Romulus and Remus were later suckled by the wolf (lupa). In historical times young men ran around the boundaries of the Palatine near-naked because Faunus had tried to seduce Omphale when she and Hercules were asleep in the Lupercal. He did not know that they had exchanged clothes and found himself attempting to seduce Hercules. After that his followers (the Luperci) went naked to prevent the repetition of such a painful error.

Venus. Originally, VENUS [vee'nus] was an Italian fertility goddess, especially the protectress of gardens. Later she ws identified with Aphrodite, whose myths she appropriated, and her consort was Mars (although her husband in myth was Vulcan). As mother of Aeneas she became much more important in Roman mythology, a process that culminated in the dedication (A.D. 121) of a temple to Venus Felix ("Bringer of Success") and Roma Aeterna ("Eternal Rome") by the emperor Hadrian. As Venus Cloacina she had a shrine in the Forum beside the drainage system of the area (called the Cloaca); Pompey dedicated a temple to her as Venus Victrix ("Conqueror") as part of his theater, the first permanent stone theater at Rome (55 B.C.). Julius Ceasar (46 B.C.) dedicated a temple to her as Venus Genetrix ("Ancestress"), honoring her as the founder of his family, The gens Iulia. Her first temple at Rome (215 B.C.) was that of Venus Erycina (i.e., the Venus who was worshiped at Eryx in Siciliy).

Priapus. The god PRIAPUS [preye-ay'pus] was the principal protector of gardens after the promotion of Venus to the ranks of the major divinities. He was represented by a statue painted red with an erect phallus. Ovid related (Fasti 1.415-440) that he tried to seduce the Naiad Lotis and was interrupted by the braying of the donkey of Silenus, which then became the animal sacrificed to Priapus.

Deities of Waters. Besides Janus, the Roman water-gods were the river-gods, the nymphs of springs and fountains, NEPTUNE [nep'toun] (Neptunus), and PORTUNUS [por-tou'nus]. The most important river-god was TIBERINUS [ti-ber-eye'nus], who, in Book 8 of the Aeneid, appeared in a dream to Aeneas and smoothed his water so that the Trojans could sail up to Pallanteum. Notable fountain-nymphs were JUTURNA [jou-tur'na] and the CAMENAE [ka-mee'nee]. Juturna was the sister of the Rutulian hero Turnus and had been raped by Jupiter. Her shrine was in the Forum and her precinct included the headquarters of the water administration of Rome. The Camenae (identified with the Muses) were worshiped outside the Porta Capena at Rome. Associated with them were the nymphs EGERIA [e-je'ri-a] and CARMENTIS [kar-men'tis], both water-divinities associated with childbirth. Egeria was said to have advised King Numa, and Carmentis was said to be the mother of Evander and to have prophetic powers.

Diana. Later idenfied with Artemis, DIANA [deye-a'na] was worshiped at the Latin town of Aricia, near which is Lake Nemi, called "Diana's mirror." She was concerned with the life of women and was sometimes identified with Lucina, the birth-goddess more commonly identified with Juno. Through her idenification with Artemis, she became goddess of the hunt and of the moon, and was further identified with Hecate as an Underworld goddess. At Aricia she was associated with a minor Italian deity, Virbius, who was identified with Hippolytus, brought to life again by Aesculapius.

Mercury. The temple of MERCURY [mer'kyou-ree] (Mercurius), originally a god of trade and profit, was in the commercial center of Rome. Through his identification with Hermes he acquired the attributes, functions, and myths of Hermes.

The Roman Underworld. ORCUS [or'kus] was the Roman Underworld, and its ruler was DIS PATER [dis pa'ter], the equivalent of the Greek Pluto, since Dis is a form of dives, "wealthy," and in Greek, "wealth" is ploutos. His cult was established in 249 B.C., and his consort was PROSERPINA [proh-ser'pe-na or Proserpine [proh'-ser-peyen], the Greek Persephone. Roman poets inherited the mythology of the Underworld from Homer and other Greek poets and from the philosophers (most notably Plato); they also used the beliefs of the mystery religions, both Greek and oriental. These literary, philosophical, and religious beliefs achieved a majestic synthesis in Book 6 of Vergil's Aeneid.

Native Roman ideas of the Underworld originated from the religious beliefs of early agricultural communiities. Each person had his or her own Manes (spirits of the dead), and epitaphs began with "Sacred to the Manes of..." (Dis Manibus Sacrum), followed by the person's name. Spirits of ancestors were honored at the festival of Parentalia (in February, the last month of the old Roman calendar); the divi parentum (gods of the ancestors) had no names and no mythology. Other spirits in the dead were Lemures (identified by some poets with the Manes), who were propitiated in the family festival of the Lemuria in May. The burial goddess was Libitina, and undertakers were called libitinarii.

Lares. The LARES [lar'ez] were household spirits, often linked with the PENATES [pe-na'tez] (see Vesta). They could bring prosperity to the householder (in early times a farmer), and they were honored at the winter festival of the Compitalia, at which dolls were hung up in shrines, one for each member of the household. Each house had its Lar Compitalis, and each city had its Lares praestites (guardian Lares). The Lares also protected travelers by land and sea.

Genius and Juno. The creative power of a man was symbolized by his GENIUS [jeen'nyus or gen'ius], and of a woman by her JUNO. The marriage-bed, symbol of the continuing life of the family, was the lectus genialis.

NON-Roman GODS

Hercules. The earliest newcomer was HERCULES [her'kyou-leez] (Heracles), and his was the only foreign cult that Romulus was said to have accepted at the founding of Rome (see Cacus). His precinct was in the busy commercial area of the cattle market (Forum Boarium) and his altar there was the Ara Maxima (Greatest Altar). Like Mercury, he was the patron of traders, to whom they dedicated a tithe of their profits.

The Dioscuri. CASTOR [kas'tor] and POLLUX [pol'lux] (the Latin form of Polydeuces), the DIOSCURI [di-os-kou'reye], appeared on white horses at the battle of Lake Regillus in 496 B.C. and led the Romans to victory, which they announced in the Forum after watering their horses at the fountain of Juturna. Their temple was dedicated in the Forum soon after.

The Sibylline Books. The collection of oracles, written in Greek, known as the SIBYLLINE [si'bi-leyen] books were bought, it was said, by the last Roman king, Tarquinius Superbus, from the Cumaean Sibyl herself (see M/L, chapter 9). She burned three of the nine books each time Tarquin refused to pay her price, and he finally bought the last three at the price originally asked for all nine. The Sibylline oracles were kept in the Temple of Jupiter on the Capitoline Hill and were consulted in times of public difficulty. After the original three were burned in a fire in 83 B.C., a new collection was made, which was put in the base of the statue of Apollo in his temple of the Palatine Hill.

Apollo. The first temple of APOLLO [a-pol'loh] at Rome was dedicated in 431 B.C. on the advice of the Sibylline books at a time of pestilence, and he was originally worshiped as Apollo Medicus ("Healer"). His other functions were introduced over the next two centuries, and he was especially worshiped by Augustus, the first Roman emperor, who dedicated a temple to him on the Palatine Hill. His functions, name, and mythology were taken over from the Greek Apollo, except that the oracle at Delphi no longer had the importance that it had had in the Greek world, although it continued to exist until the fourth century A.D. Apollo's oracles at Claros and Didyma (both in Asia Minor) were more active under the Roman empire, while the oracle of Apollo's father, Zeus, at Dodona ceased to function early in the period of Roman rule.

Asclepius. The Sibylline books also advised the bringing of ASCLEPIUS [as-kle'pi-us] (Aesculapius) to Rome in 293 B.C. He came in the form of a snake, slipping from the ship that brought him from Epidaurus onto the island in the middle of the river Tiber in Rome, where his temple was built.

Cybele and Mystery Religions. The goddesss CYBELE [sib'e-lee] also came to Rome (where she was called the Magna Mater, Great Mother) on the advice of the Sibylline books. She came in 205 B.C. in the form of a black stone from the Phrygian city of Pessinus, after the Delphic oracle had been consulted. Her temple was dedicated on the Palatine Hill and her festival was the Megalensia. Her priests, called Galli, performed ecstatic and colorful rituals, including self-mutilation, in their public processions.

The Greek, Egyptian, and Asiatic mystery religions were strong in the Roman empire. Besides Dionysus and Demeter, Isis, Ma (Dea Syria, the Syrian Goddess), Baal (identified with Jupiter Dolichenus), and Mithras were widely worshiped.

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After the Romans came in contact with the Greeks in the 6th century BC, the identities of the Roman gods and the Greek gods tended to meld into Greco-Roman combinations.

For centuries these deities and the stories told about them have inspired writers and artists.

Virgil's poem the Aeneid was a literary celebration of the supposed Trojan origin of the Roman people.

In the Aeneid, Virgil took Zeus and Hera, who the Greek writer Homer had earlier portrayed as somewhat petty and complaining, and transformed them into the awe-inspiring Jupiter and the vividly angry Juno.

Writing just after Virgil, Ovid produced works that were witty and popularly entertaining. He wove the diverse strands of Greek mythology into a single tapestry in his 15-volume work the Metamorphoses, which covers the history of the world from creation to Ovid's own time.

In later centuries, numerous musicians, writers, and artists drew on the stories that Virgil, Ovid, and other Roman writers told, incorporating the Roman literary images into their own works. In music, one of the best-known adaptations of Roman mythology is the opera Dido and Aeneas (about 1689) by English composer Henry Purcell.

The opera dramatizes an episode from the Aeneid. Two of the most prominent writers to dramatize Roman mythology were Dante Alighieri of Italy, author of La divina commedia (1321?; The Divine Comedy, 1802), and Edmund Spenser of England, who wrote the epic poem The Faerie Queene (1590-1596).

British writer Anthony Burgess retold the story of Aeneas's travels in his novel A Vision of Battlements (1949).

Aeneas's journey through the underworld was also the subject of a poem by 20th-century American writer Reynolds Price.

Ovid's vivid descriptions also lent themselves to representation in the visual arts.

The Birth of Venus (after 1482, Uffizi Gallery, Florence, Italy) by Italian Renaissance painter Sandro Botticelli is a famous rendition of how Venus first appeared.

Italian Renaissance sculptor Gianlorenzo Bernini created the Fountain of the Triton (1642-1643?) in Rome, which depicts the moment in Ovid's narrative when the sea-god Triton delivers a ringing blast from his conch horn to signal the end of the universal deluge. Aeneas was treated several times by 19th-century British painter J. M. W. Turner, who depicted Aeneas in the company of Dido, Mercury, and other figures from legend.

Dido is also the subject of several paintings by 19th-century English painter Edward Burne-Jones.

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ROMOLUS AND REMUS

Numito and Amulius, brothers and distant descendants of Aeneas (son of Anchises and Aphrodite, and survivor of the sack of Troy who wandered for seven years before settling in Italy), inherited the kingdom of Alba Longa.

Rather than share the rule of the kingdom, Amulius slew his brother, and his brother's sons; and then forced his daughter to become a Vestal Virgin so that she would not bear any children who might kill him to take over the kingdom.

She became pregnant anyway and gave birth to twin sons, Romulus and Remus. King Amulius imprisoned her and ordered his servants to drown the twins.

The servants placed the twins in a basket and tossed it into the Tiber River. The basket washed ashore where it was found by a she-wolf, who suckled them with her own milk.

A friendly bird also fed them by placing crumbs into their mouths. A herdsman eventually came across them and took them into his home to raise.

When they were grown they found out the true story of their birth, raised an army of herdsmen, attacked, and killed Amulius.

They then returned to the scene of their rescue by the Tiber River, and began plans to build a town there. They could not decide who of them should rule, so they asked the gods for a sign.

They each awaited an answer from the gods on a different one of the seven hills there. Remus saw the first sign; six vultures in a line flying overhead.

Romulus then saw twelve vultures in a line flying overhead, and thereby claimed kingship for himself. Remus disagreed, claiming kingship by virtue of seeing the first sign.

The disagreement escalated, and ended only when Romulus slew his brother. He then estabished the new town, naming it Rome after himself.

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PYRAMUS AND THISBE